News for the day

This is another one of those days in which we are just full of prophetically linked news. There are too many to even attempt to categorize. The first couple of stories reveal the EU's quest for yet more and more power on the international scene - something that we always watch closely. As mentioned in the comments below, I believe Sarkozy is someone worth watching closely and today is no exception:

Ashton in bid to save Middle East peace talks

The EU official in a letter over the weekend said the Quartet - the EU, Russia, the UN and the US - should hold a high-level meeting before the summer which spells out that Israel must pull back to its 1967 borders in return for security guarantees from the Palestinian side.

The move is designed to give Palestinians an incentive to put aside plans to seek full UN recognition in September, a move which could split the EU into pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian camps and damage EU-US relations.
The move is designed to give Palestinians an incentive to put aside plans to seek full UN recognition in September, a move which could split the EU into pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian camps and damage EU-US relations.


A French diplomat said Ashton's initiative was made "in co-ordination" with Paris, which earlier this month called for a top-level Middle East peace conference to be held in Paris in July.

This next story is shocking to say the least, and of course it involves Mr Sarkozy. Today he announces that he wants the G20 to control world-wide food prices.

Sarkozy wants G20 to control food prices

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday he wants the world's group of 20 rich industrial nations and major emerging markets to set up a shared central database of food prices to help control market volatility and keep commodity speculators in check.

Sarkozy currently holds the presidency of the G-20 group, with which he wants to push through a plan for more transparency in agriculture commodity market networks. He said it would go a long way toward taming the extreme food price volatility of past years. The G-20 takes up the issue of food prices at a meeting of farm ministers next week.

"It is time for the G-20 to take its responsibility," he told the conference.

Strikes put Greece on the brink

Public services have ground to a halt across the country, including transport services so vital to the lucrative tourist market.

Prime Minister George Papandreou is under huge pressure as he attempts to push his government’s last-ditch attempt to save the economy through parliament.

If his programme of a further 28 billion euros worth of cuts is rejected, Greece risks being cut off from further funding from Europe and the IMF.

Earlier this week the country’s credit rating was cut to one of the lowest in the world.

A default by Greece has huge implications beyond its borders, and of course, on the Euro.

U.S. satellite images capture new buildings at North Korea nuclear plant

North Korea is feared to be accelerating its nuclear programme after US satellite images captured new buildings at the country’s Yongbyon nuclear facility.

The discovery of the new buildings has sparked concern that they may be part of a drive by Pyongyang to fabricate fuel for nuclear reactors or to enrich uranium.

N. Korea 'Exported Massive Amounts of Missiles'

North Korea exported ballistic missiles on more than 500 occasions between 1987 and 2009, according to a report by the U.S. Congressional Research Service. The figure was cited by Jonathan Pollack, a Northeast Asia expert at the conservative Brookings Institution, at a seminar hosted by the Asan Institute for Policy Studies.

He said North Korea is an important source of the missile trade, because it acquires technology from various sources, develops its own missiles, and exports them to other nations. He called it the most important supplier of ballistic missiles for Iran and Syria.

China's Cyberassault on America

Senior U.S. officials know well that the government of China is systematically attacking the computer networks of the U.S. government and American corporations. Beijing is successfully stealing research and development, software source code, manufacturing know-how and government plans. In a global competition among knowledge-based economies, Chinese cyberoperations are eroding America's advantage.

Idaho Governor Selling His State to the Chinese?

The Chinese, by wisely divesting itself of American treasury securities, can take advantage of our federal system (the co-existence of two equal sovereignties) and keep its fingers in American pies by establishing powerful outposts in the 50 states, thus by-passing the chokehold held over the national economy by the bust/boom cycle perpetuated by the Federal Reserve.

Put simply, Idaho (and reportedly other states, as well) are offering the Chinese a way to dump their useless treasury bonds without sacrificing the strength of their clamp on the economic pipeline of American industry.

The specifics of the wheeling and dealing between Idaho’s state government and their Chinese counterparts are unclear with a few exceptions. What is known is that “top Idaho officials have been traveling to China and entertaining the Chinese here, in order to help facilitate this.”

The result of these junkets? American Falls, Idaho will soon be home to a Chinese-owned fertilizer plant. A significant swathe of land south of Boise (about thirty thousand acres) was bought by China, a purchase Idaho’s governor promises will “reinvigorate our American industrial base.”

Constitutionalists of all states must voice their opposition to the wide avenues being paved for China into our state economies. These agreements may soon leave us without the the check on "all encroachments of the national government" our Founders intended the states to be.

U.S. Housing Crisis Is Now Worse Than Great Depression

It's official: The housing crisis that began in 2006 and has recently entered a double dip is now worse than the Great Depression.

Prices have fallen some 33 percent since the market began its collapse, greater than the 31 percent fall that began in the late 1920s and culminated in the early 1930s, according to Case-Shiller data.

Ahmadinejad joins China, Russia leaders at summit

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday joined the Chinese and Russian leaders in a rare encounter at a summit in Kazakhstan, where he launched a new attack on the "slavers and colonisers" of the West.

But most attention was focused on Ahmadinejad, who was absent from last year's SCO meeting in Tashkent after the UN Security Council agreed sanctions against Iran and was making a rare appearance at a big international meeting.

U.S. naval movements around Syria. Hizballah moves rockets

DEBKAfile's military and intelligence sources report that Monday, June 13, the US deployed the USS Bataan amphibian air carrier strike vessel opposite Syria's Mediterranean coast with 2,000 marines, 6 war planes, 15 attack helicopters, including new V-22 Ospreys, and 27 choppers for landing forces aboard.Also this week, US naval units went operational in the Aegean, Adriatic and Black Seas as part of the joint US-Ukrainian Sea Breeze 2011 exercise.

This huge concentration of naval missile interceptor units looks like preparations by Washington for the contingency of Iran, Syria and Hizballah letting loose with surface missiles against US and Israeli targets in the event of US military intervention to stop the anti-opposition slaughter underway in Syria.

New Ice Age Approaches?

Old and busted: global warming. New hotness: coldness. Reports from three different studies released yesterday point to the possibility of an extended period of solar inactivity not seen for three hundred years, and one that could bring a new mini-Ice Age:

According to three studies released in the United States on Tuesday, experts believe the familiar sunspot cycle may be shutting down and heading toward a pattern of inactivity unseen since the 17th century.

The signs include a missing jet stream, fading spots, and slower activity near the poles, said experts from the National Solar Observatory and Air Force Research Laboratory.

Soros frontman pushing for Muslim Brotherhood

A former Jordanian diplomat widely quoted in news media in recent months calming fears about the Muslim Brotherhood is a Mideast specialist for a peace institute funded by philanthropist George Soros.

WND previously reported the International Crisis Group, or ICG, led in part by Soros has long petitioned for the Egyptian government to normalize ties with the Muslim Brotherhood. The ICG includes on its board Egyptian opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, as well as other personalities who champion dialogue with Hamas, a violent offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.